"UNDERAPPRECIATED Day 1": In January, 2018, I conceived of an UNDERAPPRECIATED MOVIEMAKERS FESTIVAL.  This idea appealed to me immensely partially because I thought it was an interesting curatorial spin to choose work not on the basis of what type of movie it was (say: experimental, documentary, trash, horror, Asian, Queer, etc) but on whether the moviemakers themselves considered themselves & their work to be UNDERAPPRECIATED.  As the criteria that I would judge the entries by I asked the following questions: "Have you been making movies for at least 30 years without receiving much attention?  Do you have a large body of work that you don't get credit for?  Have you seen younger, richer friends of yours imitate you & go on to well-paying gigs at places where you're more likely to be confronted by security forces wondering why you're there?  Are you still controversial after decades of dedicated work?  Is it almost impossible for you to get a screening anywhere?!  Is your work almost never written about?!"  These were all questions that I felt I could personally answer YES to honestly.  My hope was that I would get responses from all over the world from obscure people who were truly UNDERAPPRECIATED that I'd never heard of before.  I posted the invite online in various contexts & sent it out to various email lists.  Within the 1st day, I got a fair amount of enthusiastic responses that seemed promising.  I created a website ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/UNDERAPPRECIATED.html ) & 3 Facebook pages.  Alas, the submissions tapered off quickly & many of the people who submitted didn't qualify either because they hadn't been making work long enough or because they were too appreciated (having won many awards, etc).  I had to reject some old friends whose work I like very much.  Other people who I accepted dropped out for one reason or another.  I chose to include one recently deceased friend of mine whose work I thought qualified.  Everyone else turned out to be an old friend of mine with one exception: ronnie s.  In a way this preponderance of old friends made sense because our shared alienation was something that had brought us together in the 1st place.  Dick Turner, an old friend from BalTimOre living in Paris for the last 22 years, was particularly very enthusiastic — having had mediocre receptions for his movies in Paris.  Even though it was hardly economically to their advantage, Florian Cramer & Mariëtte Groot decided to come from Rotterdam for it, Dick decided to come from Paris, & Skizz Cyzyk & his partner decided to come from BalTimOre.  That meant that the majority of the moviemakers would be there in person.  This provided a very exciting meeting-of-the-minds.  This movie gives a glimpse of the 1st day — including our activities at my house, driving around to take care of last-minute chores, setting up the signs, rehearsing, presenting the movies (only shown in brief excerpts here), conversing, & eating out after the program.  It gives a good realistic look at the type of cooperative energy that makes such an ultra-low-budget festival possible.  I organized this on $646 a month Social Security retirement money (after my bills were paid for).  If you think that was easy try it sometime.  There were no grants & little public support.  I was enormously helped by the other participants.  It was barely manageable.  Still, for me, & I think for all who participated, this was an historic event. - September 2, 2018 note from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE  

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